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Ferrari World to bring boost to Yas Island real estate

Agents say they see property prices increasing in areas close to theme park by as much as 25%

Ferrari World is set to have a positive impact on Abu Dhabi’s property market. (ITP Images)

By Shane McGinley

Sun 31 Oct 2010 01:36 PM

The new Ferrari World theme park could boost real estate prices on Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island by as much as 25 percent, real estate agents and analysts told Arabian Business.

“Ferrari World is certainly going to impact Abu Dhabi’s property market in that the areas surrounding Yas Island such as Al Raha Beach and others will attract more visitors enabling these new communities to receive greater attention,” Loshini Lawrence, operations manager at the Better Homes real estate agency in Abu Dhabi told Arabian Business.

“Property in these popular locations will no doubt appreciate in time, especially once the communities are fully-developed,” he said.

Lawrence believes that, depending on the location, the impact on prices for properties close to the world’s first Ferrari-branded theme park could be “at least 20 to 25 percent higher than similar properties that do not offer the same.”

However, Jesse Downs, director of research and advisory at Landmark Advisory, was slightly more conservative about the short-term impact the park would have but believed the unique attraction would have a positive influence in the medium to long term.

“Based on our analysis, the opening of Ferrari World is not expected to have a short term impact on sale prices and sales volumes or rents and rental volumes. Assuming development plans proceed as expected, we could foresee a premium emerging in the medium to long term.”

The Ferrari-branded 200,000 square metre attraction, which was unveiled to the world’s media on Wednesday at Yas Island, will be the world’s largest indoor theme park and will contain around twenty rides, including the world’s fastest rollercoaster, the region’s first dueling roller coaster and a 4-D experience called ‘Speed of Magic’.